Fast pairs: a visual word recognition paradigm for measuring entrenchment, top-down effects, and subjective phenomenology.
When word pairs having a familiar order are sequentially flashed on a computer in their non-familiar order, (code zip), observers have a strong phenomenology of seeing them in familiar order (zip code). Reversal errors remained frequent even when participants obtained perceptual experience of reverse-display items by beginning with a block of longer-duration trials. A forced-choice order-detection procedure reduced but did not eliminate reversal errors, showing that "fast pairs" is a robust perceptual illusion. Even adjective + noun pairs (green skirt) showed reversal errors, and reversal errors increased with the log frequency of the word pair, consistent with a strong role for statistical processing at the level of multi-word units.
Caldwell-Harris
Catherine L
CL
Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA. charris@bu.edu
Morris
Alison L
AL
D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002755:Choice Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012193:Reversal Learning; D012660:Semantics; D012691:Serial Learning